The Nightmare
by WithMyFreezeRay
Summary: Olivia finds herself walking home alone one night when she is attacked and left for dead. Elliot finds her and has a mental breakdown. Can Elliot and the team overcome shock and find the attacker? Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

"Olivia!" the chief shouted loudly at a figure sitting slumped on top of a desk, surrounded by coffee, case files, and more Excedrin than a OTC Pharmacy.

"Chief?" she questioned, lifting her head slowly off her desk. The over tiredness felt just like a migraine and a hangover pushed together. She had purple swollen bags under her eyes and her hair was stringy and messy. "What's up?"

"Liv, go home… We're set for the night. We'll call if we need anything," the chief looked at her face for some sort of reaction, but the only one he got was a defiant one. "Please, you're overworked and I'm going to get in trouble."

"Fine, fine. Give me a second and I'll go."

"I'll call a cab if you—"

"No, I'm walking. I don't need one," Olivia slurred, putting on her jacket. She grabbed her taser and looked to the chief for approval. He nodded and she stalked off toward the exit, almost plowing over Elliot in the process.

"Liv! I thought you left hours ago…" he said, bewildered. She stared up at him.

"Oh, you have no idea…"

"Do you need me to walk with you? You look rather tired," Elliot asked.

"Ok, what part of NO don't you people understand?"

"Fine, call me if you find trouble," Elliot winked and walked upstairs with the coffee he was holding. Olivia silently wished she had one.

Out on the street, she stalked quickly and silently for blocks and blocks. People passed her going out to dinner, heading to the movies, going to clubs, and here she was only going home. She paused briefly to check her watch, which said seven fifteen. She sighed deeply, wishing only for a social life, oh, and a nice warm bed wouldn't be bad either. There was one place on the way home where she always held her breath on the way past. It was an old scene of hers, one where the victim was so badly beaten, they didn't know who she was or how she got there. All Olivia knew was at least that perp was in jail. It was still a scary corner though, with both houses on either side boarded up and they looked like they hadn't been lived in for ages. There were breaks in the boards of the better looking one, though, and this scared Olivia. After all, even if she was trained, she was a girl, tired, and running only off barrowed time from her last cup o' Joe. She safely maneuvered the corner, but as she let out her breath, something attacked her from behind. She tried to pull a defensive movement, but the man was just as fast as she was.

"Ahhhh!" she shouted, which prompted her attacker to start swiping at her pockets, while Olivia fumbled desperately with the taser. Unfortunately, she missed him by mere millimeters and somehow the attacker swiped it. _No, oh no…_ Olivia thought helplessly. Her last memories were a jolt followed by her head hitting the blunt wall of one of the buildings.

The cold winter night came and went in NYC as it had for years and years, but something didn't feel right to Elliot Stabler as he walked out of the precinct at seven fifteen the following morning. It was strange for Olivia to be late, so he thought a wake up call was in order. He quickly typed her personal cell number, carefully memorized, into his phone.

"Hi! This Is Liv Benson! Leave a message!" It beeped and Elliot was too shocked to leave a message, so he hung up. She never let her phone die… He tried her work number, but that phone was dead too. Strange, he thought. It has a twelve hour battery. It shouldn't have died unless, he gulped.

"Something's happened," he said to no one in particular. A passing mother gave him a funny look as she rolled her baby stroller toward the opposite corner. Elliot slowly started walking toward Liv's apartment, a place he had been called to several times whether for an escort to work on particularly hard cases, or even the occasional death threat or break in. About two doors from her apartment, a group stood staring at something on the sidewalk. Then someone, a younger woman who he recognized from Liv's building, was standing in front of him.

"You're a cop like Olivia right?" her voice was on the edge of hysteria and the other people turned to look at him. He nodded. "Then help her! Please!"

Elliot turned and saw the group of people had parted and lead straight up to a beat-up cardboard box, about the right size for an old computer, and a missing partner. Blood dripped from a corner. He eyed the younger woman suspiciously.

"Has anyone even BOTHERED to look in the box?!" his voice rose and the crowd cringed.

"No, no. Everyone has been too scared to even touch it. I think it's…" he listened to her right up until he put on his emergency pair of rubber gloves and opened the box.

"Liv!" he choked out. She looked horrible; almost beyond recognizable without her coat and pants she was wearing yesterday. The bottom of the box was soaked from blood and what almost smelled like gas, as if the suspect had bigger plans for this box. A red streak lead from behind the alley that lead to one of the houses he knew Olivia always kept an eye on as she walked past. What was she thinking? Assessing the fact that she was barely alive, he weighed his options. Ambulance? Too much time would pass. Pick her up? But, was her back or neck broken? His internal instincts took over and he called Cragen.

"Hello?"

"Cragen, we got a problem…" Elliot explained in brief and Cragen took in an uneasy breath.

"How much time does she have?"

"I don't, don't know," Elliot wavered.

"Time for an ambulance?"

"N-No."

"Stabler, what are you thinking then, MOVE!"

"No car."

"What?! You know what, El? I don't care. Get her out of there, NOW!" Elliot closed the phone and carefully picked up Olivia, who moaned slightly, and prominently threw up blood all over his shirt. He took of at a fast pace, the hospital being only ten or so blocks away.

"Don't worry, Olivia, I got you. It'll-be- OK."

"Elliot…I…I" she tried to respond, but her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Eventually Fin caught up with Elliot and the sped the rest of the way to the hospital. Upon arriving, the doctors and nurses took over. Elliot was getting only waves of what they were saying, being in an extreme case of shock.

"Her stats are…."

"Temp is…"

"Hypothermia on top of….."

"Oh my god how is she…."

"She's crashing!!! Find me a…"

Then, and only then, was Elliot aware he was screaming. This had to be a dream, or was it? His clothes stained with her blood, a potential cop killer on the loose, her, Olivia, oh my god… He finally blacked out. What happened after that, he didn't know until about four hours later.


	2. Chapter 2

"Where is he?" Cragen asked when he walked through the doors of the ER. The press was trying to swarm him, but luckily, the doctors were able to bar the door after Cragen.

"He's over there. Almost had to pull him off a doctor. He's really confused right now," Fin answered solemnly.

"How's Olivia?"

"Pretty bad. Why do you think loose cannon over there spazzed out?"

Cragen shook his head. He should have known Olivia leaving in the state she was in would have caused trouble, however, she'd done it a million times before? What would have made this one any different? "He's not drugged, is he?" he asked, gesturing toward Elliot.

"No, more like numb."

"Okay, Elliot?" Elliot finally perked up a little as Cragen approached him, eyeing the bloody shirt and jacket he still had on.

"What?" he asked, still wavering a bit.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"Yeah. I went looking for Liv because she didn't answer either cell phone and I know she left late. One of her neighbors approached me and asked me to help her because there was a box seeping blood. I didn't contaminate it, I was wearing gloves but I opened—the lid and then there—there—" Elliot stopped.

"And then you called me, right?"

"Mhm. And then I got here, and I don't remember anything after coming in the trauma room. I'm sorry."

Cragen looked at Fin. "That's when you had to restrain him from hurting someone else?"

Fin cringed and Elliot looked surprised. "Yes, but Stabler here didn't know that yet. I was going to wait until after—oh, doctor. What happened?"

"She's stable enough for right now. You," he pointed at Elliot, "can go in now. She's not awake and we're not completely sure of the damage yet because of the hypothermic state, but that's the only reason she's still alive. And you," he pointed at Fin, "Go in with him to assure there's no trouble again."

"Whoa, whoa. What type of damage are we talkin' about here?" Fin asked coolly.

"If she doesn't wake up in the next four hours, we assume the worst," the doctor replied.

"Just tell me one thing, doctor," Elliot spoke up. He went from white as a sheet to beet red in a matter of milliseconds. "Was she—um— well—"

"We don't know for sure yet, but with this case, you would know better than I, Detective Stabler. I'm sorry if that points you in the wrong direction."

"No. No," Elliot muttered, returning to white as a sheet. Liv, the Liv he worked with every day, who'd already suffered so much, not again… His eyes were downcast at his hands. He must be dreaming. In a matter of seconds, Olivia would wake him with a smile on her face and a fresh cup of coffee from across the street. He'd smile and accept it and ask where they were off to today, but he knew this was no dream, or, in fact, a nightmare. This was really happening. He took a deep breath and headed toward the elevator, Fin following close behind.

"Sure you're ready for this?" he asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Elliot tried to muse, but nothing was funny. It was empty, his emotions overwhelming and confusing him again and again. Fin just stared at him, but luckily, the elevator pinged the ICU floor and they stepped out. A forlorn and overworked nurse guided them swiftly down the hallway.

Inside, there was no person fully visible from the door, but machinery of every hospital grade humming, buzzing, pinging softly and sending signals to the nurse's station. Elliot paused, almost turning back, but this was for Olivia's sake. For what the world was like now, he was all she had. He shuffled in, letting the door close behind Fin, closed his eyes, and put his thumb and forefinger on his temples, thinking hard about those last words.

He WAS, besides work, pretty much all she had.

"Well, are we going to look or not? After all, we need to get to the bottom of this to find the lowly bastard who…" Fin tapered off. "You okay?"

"Just me and my thoughts," Elliot said. "Now, where were we?" He finally got a better look at Liv. He was shocked at just how much had been covered up by all the blood.

"Taser marks on the left arm, and look at the gash and the awful bruise on her forehead, it's almost unbearable. How did she live?" Fin remarked.

"I sure hope the blow to the head happened first. I wouldn't want to remember this," Elliot muttered.

"Then take another look over here. She was dragged from where she was originally standing and bound to something. Wonder if they still have her clothes somewhere… anyway, there's sufficient evidence she fought against whatever was holding her, otherwise her wrists wouldn't be cut so bad."

"She was awake at one point. That bastard…oh my god," Elliot pointed to her neck. "Someone tried to kill her afterwards. Whoever it was must have known how, but why did they get sloppy and dump her in the cold?"

"I don't know, but they missed the artery, or decided to back off, or were scared because any of the above, and she would have died. Then they strategically attacked her on garbage day. She would have been in a landfill. We would have never found her."

Never have found her…

"No! They did," Elliot exclaimed. He could have meant a lot of things, but Fin knew.

"They won't know for sure until the test comes back but—"

"I can't explain it, I just know. Fin, I need to be alone," Fin stared awkwardly at Olivia, but nodded and stepped outside to talk to the doctor again. Elliot watched the silent conversation because he knew the questions. Any family? Fin shook his head. None she'd want to contact anyway, Elliot thought. He knew it. He knew she'd been raped, it was obvious. And by someone cold and heartless enough not to finish the job, but then, he would have missed her. IF she would have died, that was. She confused him in every which way. Even the company thought they cared too much, but what if they were right about famous Benson and Stabler? But Kathy… it was too much to think about. He leaned back into the chair he found himself sitting in and soon, he was asleep, but the words still echoed through his mind…

Would never have found her… All she had was him… "She's crashing!"… "Can you help us? We think there's someone"… "No, I'll walk home myself"…

Then, his brain twisted further. "ELLIOT!!! HELP!!! SOMEONE!!! ELLIOT!!!" The perp smashes her head against something, but he's unable to move as he drags her away. Then he drifted again, and the voice was softer this time… "El? El?"

"Elliot, El?"


End file.
